Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.
How many Marthas do we have here? How many of you does this reading just absolutely drive
you nuts? But do you hear the word Mary has chosen the better part. What does Jesus mean
by that, and do we hear Jesus say that to us? Mary has chosen the better part.
I want to talk about the sacrament of presence, I don’t mean capital S sacrament but to be
present to somebody sacramentally and what it means also to be present to the Lord to be like
Mary. To sit at his feet and to listen carefully to what it is He is telling us.
Quite a number of years ago a wonderful book came out called “Tuesdays with Morrie” by
Mitch Albom. Has anybody read that book? It is a New York Times bestseller, if you haven’t
read it, it is a beautiful book. In this story is called “Tuesdays with Morrie” an old man, a young
man, and life’s greatest lesson. Mitch album at the time, true story, was a busy sportswriter. He
was writing all these ads and articles for sports; he’s flying all across the country; he’s
constantly making phone calls and working on his profession. One day he’s watching TV and
he notices a talk show and his college professor was on the talk show, this old man and he’s
watching this and he realized, “I know him, that’s my teacher.” He begins watching this episode
and he discovers that Morrie is his name, is dying and the interview was about what a man’s
last dying wish was. Morrie’s desire during this time, before that he was dying, was to be with
as many people as he could and just to be present with them and to share his story. At this
point Morrie can no longer walk; he has to begin to be fed, won’t be able to feed himself but his
mind and his heart are still alive. I want to read a passage from the book to you.
Mitch describes that when he is with Morrie, he is fully present. He looks Mitch in
the eye listens deeply and says, “When I’m talking to you now Mitch, I try to keep
focus only on what is going on between us. I’m not thinking about what
medications I’m taking, I’m not thinking about what else is going on in my world,
I’m thinking about you. In a culture obsessed with achievement Morrie teaches
Mitch that the most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love and let it
come in.
I came to love the way that Morrie lit up when I entered the room. I know he did
this for many people, but it was his special talent to make each visitor feel that this
smile was unique. When Morrie was with you, he was really with you. He looked
you straight in the eye and listened as if you were the only person in the world.
How much better would people get along if their first encounter each day was like
this instead of a grumble from a waitress or a bus driver or a boss I believe in
being fully present Maurice said. That means you should be with the person that
you are with. When I’m talking to you now, Mitch, I try to keep focused only on
what is going on between us. I’m not thinking about something we said last week,
I’m not thinking about what’s coming up this Friday, I’m not thinking about doing
another TV show or about what medications I’m taking, I’m talking to you, I’m
thinking about you. Part of the problem is that everybody is in such a hurry. Morrie
said people haven’t found meaning in their lives so they’re running all the time
looking for it. They think that the next car, the next house, the next job, then they
find those things are empty too and they keep running. The truth is I don’t have to
be in that much of a hurry with my car I would rather put my energy into people.
Mitch said I believe many visitors in the last few months of Morrie’s life were
drawn to him not because of the attention they wanted to pay to him but because
of the attention he paid to them despite his personal pain and decay this little old
man listened the way they wanted someone to be listened to. I told him he was
the father that everyone wishes they had.”
In this book Morrie shows us what it is like to be present to people.
I have to imagine when Jesus walked into Mary and Martha’s house just thinking about what
happened in the preceding passages before this in the Gospel of Luke. So, after John the
Baptist foretold Jesus is coming, Jesus would come out of the desert after 40 days, He would
work His first miracle at Cana and He would go all around the city of Galilee and He began
healing people. He began restoring sight to the blind, He began freeing those who were
possessed by the devil and even brought Lazarus back from the dead. All these amazing
things that God is doing. I have to imagine that when Jesus comes to Mary and Martha’s
house, they’re His really close good friends and if you ever had something wonderful in your
life happen, you just want someone to share it with. Imagine Jesus walks into their house and
He’s just wants to share with them these wonderful things that God is doing, and Mary sits at
his feet, and she listens while Martha is going about. She’s anxious and worried and the actual
Greek phrase means something like worked herself up into a tizzy, so Martha’s worked herself
up into a tizzy. I don’t know if you’ve ever done that before. She’s making herself upset
because she’s anxious and worried about many things.
Jesus is trying to share with these two sisters Mary’s listening but Martha’s busy and anxious
and worried she’s probably banging pots and pans she’s probably screaming out things. We
know that she said to Jesus, Lord tell my sister to get up and help me I’m all alone and Jesus
is like I’m trying to tell you what’s going on and Mary she’s chosen the better part the
sacrament of presence so first of all to sit at Jesus’ feet means to be his disciple the disciples
would often do that after they were after they’d received healing after he was teaching them
the very passage after this scripture which we’ll hear next Sunday is when Jesus teaches his
disciples how to pray and he gives to us the gift of the our father what we learned from this is
that Mary has her full attention on Jesus there’s something that each and every one of us is
called to do you’re doing it right now by the way when we come to mass you’re sitting at the
feet of Jesus and there’s probably a lot of other things that you could have been doing today
and there’s probably a lots of distractions that you might have but every time you bring your
attention here to him you’re sitting in the street you’ve chosen the better part her bishops also
asked each one of us to pray for 15 minutes every day and I was thinking about our Chapel
how beautiful it is and we do have adoration every Wednesday evening and Saturday morning
until mass you’ve never experienced what’s called a holy hour just coming and being with the
Lord and the exposed Eucharist just invite you to that it’s something that you will find to be the
most wonderful hour of your week but you can stop in here anytime and I think it’d be really
neat not only to sit there before the Tabernacle but I’m just thinking this it might be even really
beautiful just sit down next to the Tabernacle and just listen to what Jesus wants to tell you
have difficult time just sitting at his feet and listening why is that because we’re anxious and
worried about many things but Mary’s chosen the better part the sacrament of presence is not
only for Jesus that were present to Jesus but also that we are present to other people that
when they’re in our midst we’re not thinking about anything else we’re not anxious to worry
about anything else but we’re simply being with the person in front of us how many of you are
having a conversation either with your friends or your family or spouse or your children at the
end of the at the end of the conversation they go So what do you think and you’re like I don’t
know what they just said never happened to you because our minds are anxious and worried
about many things the sacrament of presence to be truly present to people to be truly present
to Jesus the catechism says that prayer doesn’t just happen we have to make a concerted act
of the will and what that means is we have to make a choice to do it and actually then do it
make a concerted act of the will and so let us take this week and just try to focus on that to be
truly present to the Lord to try at least for 15 minutes a day just to sit at his feet and listen and
to be doing the one thing that Mary did just focusing on Jesus and I think the more present we
are with the Lord and the more we hear his voice the more present we will be with each other
instead of being worried and anxious about many things let us be like Mary sitting at the feet of our Lord and being truly present.
If you’ve never read Tuesdays with Morrie, you will be happy you did. https://amzn.to/3JCpumE
